Can it work?
by kaila2k
Summary: Vidcon rolls around again, but some things are different. Panic attacks, dancing, and new people. What will Dan and Phil do? Sidenote: This story is not phan. It has some girls that may or may not get with Dan and Phil. I'll probably right a phan story in the future. Sorry. Rated M for language and some stuff that might hapen.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: This story does not start out from the point of view of Dan or Phil. That will happen like chapter three ish. Please bear with me.**

 _ **Chapter One**_

My phone buzzed. I have to say, that is possibly the worst way to wake up from sleep. With your phone buzzing on your bedside table, having a seizure, and singing "I Will Always Love You" in a Darth Vader voice. Like I said, very appealing. I groaned and rolled over to grab it.

"CLAIRA!" Someone yelled from the other end of the phone call. I pulled the phone away from my ear the fastest I could possibly move in that moment. I gently put the phone back to my ear, waiting to see if the yelling would resume.

"Claira!" This time the person didn't yell, although their voice was _way_ too perky for this early in the morning. I looked at the clock. Eight a.m. Yep, way too early.

"Hallo?" My voice came out a little scratchy.

"Claira! Yay! I'm sorry I was yelling, but this is just so exciting!" The voice took form and I recognized who was talking.

"Lucy?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yes! Did I just wake you up?"

"Yes. Why are you calling at this ungodly hour?"

"Okay, okay, calm down, calm down." Lucy did that sometimes, tried to calm herself before she said something she found super exciting. "Okay. So, I was like, browsing on some vidcon websites and I found this thing that was like, offering free trips to vidcon for some reason. So I thought I would give it a shot, and I signed up. Turns out that I won! So I get to go to vidcon with four of my friends! For free! Isn't that exciting?!" She got steadily more excited as she talked.

"Okay, Lucy, slow down. What's vidcon?"

"You don't know what vidcon is?! Impossible!"

"Very possible. What is it?"

"Seriously?" I went silent. "Okay, well it's where all these youtubers talk on panels and everyone can talk to them and ask questions and-" I cut her off.

"What are youtubers?"

"Seriously Claira?! Have you been living under a rock?!"

"Okay hang on. Just give me a sec." I pulled the phone away from my ear and rolled out of my bed. I shivered when my feet hit the cold wood floor. I walked out of my room and headed down the hallway for the living room. Once I got there I saw a girl being swung around by a guy. They were moving too fast for me to really make out anything, but the music that was playing was classical type stuff, so they had to be doing ballet.

"Gemma!" I yelled over the music. Gemma was my roommate and best friend. She was just slightly shorter than me, had reddy brown hair, kinda the colour of rust, tanned skin and grey eyes. She was also a dancer, who woke up at 6:30 in the morning, every morning, to practice. Today she just happened to have a partner. Whoever she was dancing with swung her up into the air so I could see her toes brush the ceiling. I walked over and paused the music. "Gemma!" I called again. The dancing in the room stopped.

"Claira?" Gemma looked at me, kinda stunned. "Why are you up this early?" I rolled my eyes at her and held out the phone.

"Lucy is talking techy stuff. You might understand." Gemma nodded at my words and took the phone.

"Hello?" Gemma said hesitantly. There was some loud noise and Gemma lurched the phone away from her head. She shook her head and slowly pulled the phone closer. I guess I wasn't the only one with that reaction to Lucy. Gemma took a few steps away and started talking rapidly.

For the first time, my attention focused on the guy Gemma had been dancing with. He was taller than me and shirtless. Enough said. I suddenly felt self conscience in my plaid pajama shorts and tank top.

"Hiya" I said, kinda like a "I have no clue what to say, and this is the first shitty thing that came to my mind" statement.

"Hiya!" he said back, with exaggerated energy.

"You are?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Nick!" He keeps saying things with wayyy to much energy.

"Okay." I was kinda getting fed up with his over excitement and was about to leave the room when Gemma squealed from the corner. I stared at her until she hung up.

"What's going on?"

"Okay so here's the deal," Gemma took a breath before she continued, so that she could walk over to us. Before she started she jumped up on the counter that I was leaning against, swinging her legs over the edge. "Lucy essentially won five tickets to vidcon, including the one for her. She gets to take four friends and herself on an all expense paid trip to wherever vidcon is being held. I think she said it was in San Francisco. Anyway, I know you aren't much into vidcon or youtube or anything, but hey it's an all expense paid trip to San Francisco for four days. We have to share a room. The only one who gets her own room is Lucy, because she signed us up and everything. She's bringing Terra and Jane too."

"Okay. This is a big deal because?"

"She gets to meet all of her favourite people in the world, and we leave in two days."

"TWO DAYS!?" I shouted. I had some panic attack problems, so this was a little stressful.

"It's okay Claire. She gave the names of the people she is bringing and they sorted it out. We both got off work, you don't have to worry about anything other than what you are going to pack. Everything is sorted." She smiled at me and hopped off the counter. "We're going to San Francisco." Her smile grew to a grin and she threw her arms around me. I couldn't help grinning back.

Once we parted from our hug, Nick still stood there awkwardly. Gemma glanced at me and then at him. "Nick, I am going to have to ask you to leave. We have a whole shit-load of stuff to do." Nick nodded grabbed his shirt and lumbered toward the door. It slammed behind him.

"He was a bit of a ditz." I stated.

"I think a bit is an understatement." Gemma poked me in the shoulder. We burst out laughing.

We spent the day looking up weather conditions and what kind of stuff they had at the hotel, so they could pack appropriately. We spent the day after that finishing packing and double checking we had everything. And triple checking, and quadruple checking, until the time where we had to leave.

"Teresa!" Gemma screamed once we reached the airport. She was standing a little ways ahead of us and spun around when her name was called.

"Hey!" She called running over to us.

"Hey Terra, do you know where Jane and Lucy are?" I asked her. Terra was her nickname. She had blonde hair, with murky brown eyes. She was insanely smart, and from what I understood, a huge fangirl about youtube. She was like 5'5to mine and Gema's 5'7 and insanely smart. She was basically awesome.

"No I haven't." She turned and pulled her glasses out of her carry-on. "These might help though." She put on her black frames and blinked a couple of times. We laughed and looked around.

"Do you have any idea where we are supposed to go? I knew we were supposed to meet here, but..." I trailed off as two people came running towards us.

"HEY HEY HEY!" Lucy yelled, her brown hair swishing in its ponytail. Her blue eyes looked a little crazy and we all took a step back. The other girl caught up to Lucy and panted for breath. She had black hair, was about a foot shorter than me and had green eyes.

"Sorry we're late." The black haired girl said.

"It's cool Jane. Where are we supposed to go?" Terra asked.

"Follow me!" Lucy called and started to run.

"LUCY" We called. "SLOW DOWN" we said it in almost perfect synchronization and it was perfect. Everyone stopped for a second before I called out "Jinx!" And jogged after Lucy.

We met in a lounge before the flight, which had some pretty comfortable couches and okay wifi. Then it was time to board the plane.

Once everything was settled, I was sitting next to Jane in the first class seats (which were really stinking cool). We talked for a while I got to learn a bit more about her. She was kind of new to our group of friends. We had just stumbled into a bookstore she had happened to be working in about three months ago, and she had been our friend ever since.

She was studying marine biology, worked every chance she could to pay for it, and her favourite kind of cookie was peanut butter. What more did you need to know in a person? After a while, I couldn't help but be lulled to sleep by the sway of the plane.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

As soon as I got off the plane, I had my earbuds in. I had to practice my dancing. I was trying out for schools of dance soon, and I had to be ready. I was jamming out in the bridgey thing that connects the plane to the airport. I almost started to dance when my earbud was yanked out of my ear. I turned to see who had done it. Claira was standing at my shoulder.

"No dancing okay? It's a vacation, and I know you are trying out soon and whatever, but you don't work on vacation." She stared at me with those hazel eyes and I sighed.

"Dancing isn't really work. Not really."

"Oh shove it, Gemma. You know dancing takes up all your time. No dancing. You need to spend some time relaxing. Maybe even sleep in!" She fake gasps. I shook my head at her as I smiled. "Just try it, okay?" I nodded at her. "Great, now let's go cause some trouble in this little town!"

"You know that San Francisco is probably bigger than Toronto, right?"

"A girl can dream." She turned around to shrug, while she walked backwards. I laughed.

"So what do you guys know about youtube?" Terra asked as she walked behind us.

"Nothing." Claire answered immediately.

"Slightly more than her. I could probably recognize some people. Know what kind of stuff they talk about." Terra nodded. "ish" I added. I didn't want her to think that I knew everything she might want to talk about.

"Just don't get in the way of the fangirls. That's all you need to know. To you this is a trip, to them it's their life." Terra nodded knowingly. To be honest, she probably didn't know another way to nod.

"Aren't you a fangirl?" Jane asked. She had snuck up behind them. "Like, a bigger fangirl than me?"

"Yes. Yes I am." She said with confidence. She smiled a little, the little smirk you get when you beat someone.

"Just not as big as a fangirl as I am!" Lucy called as she caught up with us. We all laughed at the face she was making, which had scrunched up her neck. We didn't talk much until we reached the hotel. Which was a really nice hotel. Like kiss your ass instead of using toilet paper kind of hotel. It was wonderful.

Once we checked in, we piled into the elevator and headed to the seventh floor.

"They said that we could be put on the same floor as youtubers." Lucy whispered. It's the first time I had heard he be quiet since we got here.

"That might be them just being like "To cover all of our bases, we should say this"." Jane whispered back.

"But, they literally said that they booked us next to youtubers rooms. They just wouldn't tell me who." Lucy said this like it was the news that the cure for cancer had finally been invented.

"Wait, seriously?" Terra raised her voice above a whisper. Before anyone could answer, the doors flew open and we stepped out.

"So, Claira and I have room 718. What does everyone else have?"

"Jane and I have room 717." Terra replied.

"I have 719." Lucy shrugged. "I guess you two," she gestured at Claire and I, "are across the hall from us. That's fine."

"Perfectly fine." Claira added, then started walking down the hall. Jane went next and I could see her pale skin beneath her pony tail. Everyone slowly shuffled after them. I went last. When I got to room 718 Claire was holding the door open, so I waved to the others and stepped inside. I quickly shut the door firmly, then kicked off my shoes. I watched Claire crack her neck then start taking her dark brown hair out of her bun. It fell about halfway down her back. I waited for her to move before I shuffled further into the room.

I went to the bed closest to the window and flopped on it dropping my suitcase in a chair along the way. I pulled my messenger bag off of me after I had flopped.

"I see you chose that bed." I strained my neck to see Claira putting her suitcase on a fancy little suitcase stand.

"You are indecisive. I took the initiative."

"Good for you!" She smiled at me. She cracked her neck. "God, I am so tired."

"You slept on the plane!"

"Bad sleep is worse than no sleep."

"True."

"Do you want to explore the hotel?"

"I thought you were tired."

"I could last a little while."

"Let's do it!" We each grabbed a key card and shoved them in our pockets, then pulled on our shoes.

"We can't let the others see us." Claire said. I nodded. They would want to come, and this was a solo mission. Or a double mission, I guess. "I'll peek out the door and then reach backwards when it's safe. Okay?"

"Okay." I agreed and she nodded. She glanced out the door, did a double check, then reached her hand backwards. I grabbed it and she pulled me into the hallway. The door clicked behind us. I dropped her hand and we scurried down the hall and around the corner. We were headed to the elevator. We turned the corner and the elevator dinged. We both slowed and tried to act normal. In doing so, we started laughing. We were laughing so hard that the two giant people who just got off the elevator stared at us. We held our breath. I mumbled a hello and Claire burst into a fit of giggles. They just stood there looking stunned. We shuffled past. And suddenly I turned around and called. "Have a nice evening!" Then took off running to the elevator. I made it just in time to hold the door open. Claire came running behind me a second later. We skid into the elevator and started giggling.

"Nice ass on those guys, gotta admit." I said quietly.

"I didn't even look! I should have! I missed a chance." Her voice was pitted with laughter and hiccups. We laughed and laughed until we reached the top floor, where we sobered up a bit.

We walked down the hallway until we found a window, then admired the view. We headed downstairs and explored the pool, the workout room, every huge party room that we could find, and then went and walked up and down every floor in the whole hotel. By the time we got back to our room we were exhausted. I barely had time to brush my teeth and change before I crawled into my bed and was fast asleep.

The next morning I woke up at 6:30 San Francisco time, which was about nine in the morning for me. I figured that I had slept in. I put my earbuds in and started to warm up. I don't know how long it had been when I heard a groan from somewhere in Claire's direction. Her name was actually Claira, but I call her Claire or Clara because Claira is just weird, let's face it.

"Can you not? Your moving and shaking is moving and shaking me. I'm surprised you haven't gotten a noise complaint."

"Sorry Clara."

"Ehhhggg. What time is it?" I spun around to look at a clock, at her request.

"It's eight in the morning. But we're a little behind, so to us, it's like, eleven. Which means we should get food!" Claire moved faster at the word food and soon we were shuffling out the door. I knocked on Lucy's door and Claire knocked on Jane and Terra's door.

Lucy opened the door almost immediately and came to join us for breakfast, excited for an early start.

Jane and Terra came tumbling out there door a minute later, looking a little tired, but ready to face the day. We head downstairs to the free breakfast and found it quite crowded. We snagged a table and hurried to get some of the food before it was gone.

We ate quickly and managed to leave before the next crowd of people came in. But then came the announcement. It said something about vidcon something or other being ready to start. Lucy and Terra grabbed our hands and ran, Jane hurrying right beside us.

We got dragged to the other side of the hotel conference rooms, and pulled into the crowd. We were hanging out with another band of girls that were waiting for whatever it was to start. Some meet and greet or something, I don't know. One of the girls was talking about how she had a panic attack in a cave exploration tour.

"Hey, Claire gets panic attacks in crowds, someone she knows always has to stay by her."

"Which one of you is Claire?" the girl asked. I looked around to point her out. She wasn't there.

"I don't know where she is. Where is Claire?" Lucy, Terra, and Jane started to look around as well.

"She'll find her way back eventually. She knows where we are." Terra added, although looking a little worried. But I realized something that I had sworn I wouldn't do when I convinced her to come. I lost her. I lost Claire.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

"Phil? Phil?" I called. The meet and greet was pretty much over. There was still a huge crowd, but no one was coming up to us anymore, so we took a short break. Somehow in this madness I had lost Phil. I was such a _wonderful_ best friend. I started to turn as I walked, sometimes walking backwards so that I could look around for Phil. I started to turn again when I smacked into something, or someone. I stumbled but regained my balance.

"Oh god, I am so sorry." The voice came from behind me so I turned to look. A beautiful girl with dark skin and dark brown hair was mumbling her apologies. She was wearing black jeans and a light blue sweater, that had gotten bunched up in the crash of bodies.

"It's okay, I was looking for my friend Phil, I wasn't paying attention, it's my fault."

"No, no, it's mine. I was looking for my friends, and I guess I forgot where they were standing, and I don't really do well in crowds, and I am sort of having a panic attack" The girl took a deep breath. "You just learned a lot about me in thirty seconds." She took another deep breath. She didn't even seem to know who I was. It was nice.

"Are you okay?" She inhaled again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just slowly dying and I have no idea where I am."

"Who are you here to see?" I asked, trying to keep her calm.

"No one actually. My friend won some trip and brought me and like three other people along, even though I don't know anything about youtube, and it gets really awkward 'cause I have no idea what I am doing. I'm sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous." She took another deep breath.

"What do you friends look like, I'll try and help find them." For some reason I felt some need to protect the girl.

"Well, one of them is just about my height and has reddish hair-" She stopped mid explanation. "You don't have to help. I don't want to inconvenience anyone by asking for help. What does your friend Phil look like? I can try and help."

"Phil is about 6'2, black hair, blue eyes, pale skin."

"Okay! I promise I will not go on tumblr once until he is found." She was about to turn away, but then she came back. "If I do find him, who am I supposed to tell him was looking for him? Just the big fucking giant?" I laughed.

"No, my name is Dan." She smiled.

"My name's Claire, or Claira, or Clara, depending on the way you pronounce it. Sorry I'm rambling." She gave a small smile, took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. Which was kind of hard considering I am 6'3. "I will do my very best to find your friend. Have a wonderful day." Then she turned and vanished into the crowd. I smiled and continued my search for Phil.

I wandered around the crowd, occasionally asking people along the way if they has seen Phil. No one really had, although one person said they saw a tall black haired guy headed back towards our booth area. So I wandered off in that direction, looking for Phil. When I was almost there, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see who it was.

"Hey! A girl told me you were looking for me." Phil smiled at me and I hugged him.

"Awww" Someone called from behind me. Phil and I pulled away from each other. I turned to look at whoever Phil was staring at, who I assumed was the one who had said something. "I knew phan was a thing!" She squealed. A couple of her friends were jumping up and down and squealing too.

"Slow your roll down Lucy." A red-headed girl shoved past the other people so she stood next to the girl with the brown hair who had something about phan. "They can be whatever they want to be. So shut it and go make yourself a cup of tea. Realitea."

Woah, that girl was sassy. She stood just about 5'7 and was only slightly shorter than the girl I had met earlier. Didn't she say she had a redheaded friend? Before I knew what was happening, there was a mob. I didn't get a chance to ask the redhead if she knew Claire, and I don't know if I could find her again. Phil and I made our way back to meet and greet area. People swarmed. Our break was over.

"Come on Phil! Hold the elevator!" I yelled. Phil was a few steps behind me as we hurried. There had been a girl following us all day, and no offence meant to her, but we really wanted her to not see where our room was. A small hand darted in front of the elevator doors, holding them open. We skidded inside, and I actually ran into the wall. "Close the doors, please." I lowered my voice. The person, who I realized was a girl as I focused on my surroundings, seemed to sense the urgency and clicked the close doors button repeatedly. Once the doors were closed, she turned to look at us.

"Hey! You found each other!" She held her arms out in a gesture of some sort and gave us a huge smile. I finally recognized her as Claire.

"Hey!" Phil gave her a huge smile too and wrapped her in a hug. "I never got to hear your name, but thank you!"

"No problem! At least someone found their friend today." She smiled at me.

"Oh, you never found your friend?" I was actually deeply concerned for her. She seemed too nice to be lost in a place she had never heard of before.

"Yeah, but that's okay. She's probably in the room dancing or something." She shrugged. Phil and I looked at each other, then looked at her. Confused as to why she would be dancing in a hotel room. Claire looked at us for a minute. "Oh right! She's a dancer. You don't know. Sorry."

"Oh okay." I nodded along. I didn't realize the elevator was moving. "Oh could you hit floor seven please?"

"It's already pushed. That's my floor." She smiled a kind of "please say you won't stalk me" smile. I smiled back. She slapped her hand against her head. "I almost forgot," She turned to Phil. "Hi, my name is Claira." She smiled then glanced at the panel that said what floor we were on. As she did so, the elevator stopped. Not because it was on our floor, but because the power went out. That's what I assumed anyway. Everything went dark and the elevator lurched, causing Claire to stumble and fall into Phil, who crashed into me. Everyone ended up on the floor in a heap.

Claire was mostly on top of Phil, her chest against his neck. But at the sideways angle she was at, her hips were halfway on top of me. This is when I realized that she had some really noticeable curves. Like REALLY noticeable. Her ass looked amazing in those jeans. She squirmed a bit, mumbling an apology. Phil mumbled something back. Probably along the lines of "It's okay. Don't worry about it.".

"I don't think I can get up without elbowing or kneeing one of you." She collapsed against Phil, who was still leaning on me. This was a truly awkward situation. She shifted so she had a hand on the ground beside Phil, and propped herself up a bit.

"Okay, what if we lift you up a little bit first, so then you can stand up?" I asked. Phil turned his head to me and nodded. His face was flushed.

"That would probably work." Claire nodded. Phil put his hands on her stomach/hip area, I couldn't really tell. I grabbed her thighs.

"Count of three." I counted and down and then pushed upwards. Claire pushed with her one hand as well. Then she shuffled spun her legs around underneath her and stood up. She did this in a matter of seconds. It was very impressive. Then she offered Phil and I each a hand. We took it and each pulled ourselves up.

"Sorry about that." Claira half frowned, her lips pulled to the side.

"It's okay." Phil smiled at her, his face still red. My face was probably red too. Actually, so was Claire's. Phil reached for the phone to call for help, but as soon as he did, the elevator restarted.

"Seriously?" Claira looked at the ceiling. "You choose now to restart? When we didn't need help? How fucking kind of you." She looked at Phil and I. "Sorry. I sort of have the mouth of a trucker. I swear a lot."

"I can tell." I sort of laughed as the elevator dinged on our floor. Jesus Christ that took a while. Claire looked out and then took a careful step.

"Is everything okay?"

"Uhhmm, yeah. I don't know if any of my friends are here, that's all. I don't know whether my panic attack is over either. So I'll just go now." She nodded at us and walked down the hallway. We followed.

"We have to go this way too!" Phil called after her. She turned around and waited for us to catch up, taking deep breaths.

"Cool, which room is yours?" She asked. Phil and I exchanged glances.

"Room 720" Phil finally said.

"Seriously? I have room 718. You are right next to me." She smiled at us then stopped walking. She pulled a key card out of her pocket and headed to the closest door, which I realized was her room. I hadn't been paying attention.

"Do you want us to stick around? In case your friends aren't here? We can help if you are having a panic attack." The words came out of my mouth, but I didn't recognize them. There was that irrational need to protect a girl I barely even know.

"That would actually be great. Thank you very much." She gave me a smile, then flushed red and turned back to the door. It clicked and she swung it open. She gestured for us to follow her as she stepped inside.

We followed her into the small lounge part of the room. The problem was, all the sofas had been moved around to clear a huge space in the middle. In that space a redheaded girl danced in a crop top and leggings, her eyes closed.

"She always does this." Claire sighed.

"Sorry?" Phil asked.

"She's a hip hop and ballet dancer. She always dances on vacation. And we can't stop her until the song changes." She frowned. "Sorry" No one said anything. We just watched her dance and swing her hips. Suddenly she stopped dancing and took a breath. Before she could start her next dance Claire called out to her. "GEMMA! GEMMA!" The redhead spun around and ripped the earbuds out of her ears.

"Jesus fucking Christ! Claire, where did you go? We were looking for you! Lucy threatened to tie me up if I didn't stay in this room!" Whilst the girl was yelling, she walked over and hugged her friend. "I was so scared." Claire pulled away after a moment.

"You weren't supposed to dance. Vacation, remember?" Claire poked Gemma in the arm.

"Seriously? That's what you have to say? What the hell happened to you?" The other girl replied.

"Short form? I had multiple panic attacks. Then the elevator broke down. I also made some friends." Claire smiled at her friend, then smiled at us. The girl finally realized we were there.

"Who are they?" She asked quietly.

"Guys, this is Gemma. Gemma, this is Dan," Claire gestured to me, "And this is Phil." She smiled proudly.

"Hey, don't I know you?" Gemma looked at us questioningly. "Like, aren't you guys youtubers. I'm pretty sure you are. Lucy was fangirling pretty hard over you." Claire looked so confused.

"Wait, they're famous? I didn't know." She turned to us. "Good for you!" She smiled. Gemma whacked her on the arm.

"Of course you didn't know. You barely use the internet. The only thing you use is google. And occasionally tumblr. That's it. You are a book person. Because otherwise you would recognize them as AmazingPhil and danisnotonfire." Gemma looked at us and smiled. Claire looked at us very confused.

"Hi?" Phil and I chorused.

"Who are you?" Claire asked.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter Four**_

"We're exactly who we said we were. I'm Phil. He's Dan." I tried my best to clarify. "We also are youtubers. You just didn't seem to know. So we didn't tell you." Standing in front of me were two of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. Claire, with her dark skin, almost black hair, hazel eyes, and all her curves. Gemma, with reddish hair, tanned skin, greyish eyes, and although she had less curves than Claire, they were definitely there. The only thing was, they were both a little upset with us. Claire frowned at me.

"Okay. I can see why you did that." Claire said, nodding her head while frowning. Then she turned around and walked in the other direction. "You guys can actually come into the room." She called over her shoulder. Dan walked hesitantly into the room and I followed.

"Feel free to sit." Gemma said while wandering over to the desk in the corner.

"WOAH WOAH." Claire walked in front of her and held up her hands. "No one is gonna do anything until you put those couches back. No help either. You dance, you put away." Gemma sighed and started to push couches around.

"Can we help?" I asked. I didn't want to stand around awkwardly.

"No you cannot. She does this a lot. She wakes up at 6:30 in the morning to dance and sometimes brings in her dancing buddies. The only joy I get from her dancing is making her do this. And her recitals. And when she gets one of her buddies to lift her up and her toes hit the ceiling fan. That's fun." Claire answered and gestured for them to come into the room. There were two beds pushed up against the wall to the left with the couches right in front of us and a table behind that. There was a desk in the corner as well. Dan and I shuffled past Gemma and headed toward the table.

"Are you guys," Gemma shoved a couch in the middle of the sentence "staying for dinner?" She continued. "I don't know if we are going out or staying in, but if you want to eat with us, feel free." She leaned against the back of one of the couches that she had just pushed back into place. "And that toe comment was not nice. That seriously hurt. I couldn't do ballet for a week."

"Oh, come on. You know you enjoyed that week of catching up on tv." Claire bit her lip and Gemma sighed.

"Seriously, are you staying?" She looked at me and quirked a smile in my direction. I have to say quirked because it was kind of sideways. "If we are going out I have to change."

"I kind of want to go out. I don't want to stay in here all the time. Besides the fact that we can text Lucy and say we went out to some small restaurant that we can't pronounce the name of." Claire looked at Gemma.

"Who's Lucy?" Dan asked.

"She's the one who won the trip. She is also the one who freaks out about everything and goes WAY overboard. Usually she's better than she is on this trip." Gemma answered him and smiled in his direction as well. "Seriously, you guys can sit down, you don't have to hover around awkwardly." She waved her arms as she talked. So we all kind of sat down around the table awkwardly.

"So, it's nice to meet you Gemma." I smiled at her.

"Thanks! It's nice to meet you too." She was sitting next to me and I could see her stomach sticking out from under her blue crop top.

"So, you want food?" Dan asked quietly. He was sitting on the other side of me, Claire on the other side of him. Claire laughed.

"I definitely want food. You want food?" Dan nodded eagerly. "You can come get food with us if you like. You don't have to, but hey, if you want..." She trailed off a bit and Dan and I shared a glance. We both shared an understanding of how nice they were. We each nodded.

"Great!" The girls exclaimed together.

"Jinx!" Gemma exclaimed. Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. We all looked at each other.

"GEMMA! I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR!" A voice yelled.

"Oh shit. It's Lucy." Gemma sighed. And then she looked at Dan and I. "You are the reason she fangirls. You cannot be here. Clara, hide." She looked towards her friend. I hadn't heard her name pronounced that way before. It was pretty. "Quickly!" She whispered harshly then walked toward the door.

Claire stood up and grabbed our arms. She dragged us into the bathroom and shut the door behind us. Or, Clara. I liked Clara. Since she had grabbed on of us in each of her hands, Dan had gone into the bathroom first. He now sat on the toilet. I leaned against the door while Clara was smushed between us. There was a little bit of space where she could move around, but not much.

"Sorry." She whispered. Then there was a lot of talking on the other side of the door. No one moved. The door closed outside. I started to open the open the door and Clara almost tackled me. She shoved herself right against me and grabbed the door handle, right over my hand. She shook her head. Dan made a small cough noise and Clara flipped her head around to look at him. I glared. His face was red and he looked like he was trying not to laugh. That was probably what was happening. There was more talking on the other side of the door. After another minute or two the door opened and closed again. Someone banged on the bathroom door.

"Guys, you can come out now." Gemma called. Clara pulled herself away from me and I opened the door. To get everyone out Clara almost had to sit on Dan's lap. It was a little awkward. We all shuffled out and sort of fell on the beds. Just because we were glad it was over. Dan and Clara flopped on the bed closest to the bathroom, Gemma and I quickly followed suit on the other bed.

"What did you even tell her?" Dan asked quietly.

"That Clara had gotten herself a date and was at some restaurant and might not even come home til tomorrow. Then I told her I had an extreme case of diarrhea. It worked." Gemm had started to giggle, which made Clara laugh. I started laughing with them and finally Dan chimed in. Nothing was awkward anymore.

"Am I the only one who feels like I have known you for forever?" Clara asked after the laughter died out. There was a chorus of 'No's and then everyone fell silent. Gemma suddenly jumped off the bed.

"Who wants food?" She asked. Everyone was nodding along at this point. She grabbed some stuff from a suitcase and went to the bathroom. We all crawled from our postitions and started to grab our shoes. Before we had even finished, Gemma was already out of the bathroom and grabbing a messenger bag.

"Let's go!" Dan called. We all exited the room and hurried down the hall.

We decided on a little restaurant a little walk from the hotel. We got seated in a booth and I slid into one side of the booth with Dan. Clara slid in across from me, and Gemma followed after her. A waitress came over and took our drink orders and then left. We sat for a moment.

"So what do you guys do?" I asked to fill the silence. The silence wasn't bad, it was just really quiet.

"Well, I'm a dancer, you probably realized that." Gemma nodded at us. She glanced over at Clara, who was biting her thumb, and rolled her eyes. "Claire is shy. She is an author."

"Really?" Dan and I asked. Clara glared at Gemma.

"No I am not. I am taking courses on English literature and writing. There is a couple others. I have to write a short novella as a thesis. I just have to decide which book I have written to shorten and use. Until that point, I run a library." She smiled lightly at us.

"So you have written books before?" Dan asked her.

"Yes I have. None of them have been published, they're just for me to write." She seemed to want to change the subject. "What do you guys do? Other than youtube, I mean."

"We wrote a book. We also have a radio show at the first of every month and do work for the BBC sometimes." Dan answered her. We talked for a bit about the book and stuff until the drinks arrived.

"Where are you guys from?" I asked.

"Toronto." Clara answered.

"That's in Canada." Gemma clarified. I nodded. "I am going to assume from your accents that you are british." She added. I sometimes forgot that they had no idea who we were. It was nice.

"Yeah, we live in London." Dan nodded.

"Oooh oooh!" Clara jerked her hands upwards. "Gemma is trying out for the London School of Dance! If we have to move, we could live there too!" She had a huge grin on her face. She looked really cute.

"Really?! But wouldn't you rather stay in Canada? And what about Clara?" I asked. I was a little stunned that we might actually see them again. It was nice.

"Well, Canada doesn't have many really _well known_ dancing schools. The more well known it is, the more opportunities you have to dance. And Claire has been applying to the University of London, in case I get in. I told her she didn't have to but..." Gemma trailed off.

"I wasn't going to let you go to some random country alone, now was I?" Clara smiled at her best friend. "We still don't know if we got in yet though." And on that note, we took a break to look at the menu. There was some good vegan options for Dan. I checked.

We ordered, food came, we ate. There was little conversation. The day had been long and apparently no one had gotten enough food. There was some pleasant conversation after we ate. Some jokes that made me laugh harder than it probably should have. Clara laughed too. We paid our bills and stood up to leave. We stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"So..." Dan trailed off for a moment. "See you around?"

"Oh come on! Let's just get this out of the way." Gemma rolled her eyes at our awkwardness. "Can we just exchange our phone numbers and stuff already? You are our friends and I am kinda hoping you're ours, so let's just get this out of the way." She pulled out her phone and started pulling something up. We all grabbed our phones as well. We exchanged numbers as we walked.

We walked back to the hotel. I showed off my animal noises, we talked about of favourite kinds of cookies are our favourites, and Clara and Dan got into a debate about scientifically grown meat. We piled into the elevator and headed back to our rooms. It was getting late. Clara yawned on the walk down the hall. We stopped in front of their door. Clara lurched forward and gave me a hug. Then she turned and did the same to Dan. Gemma smiled a quirky little smile at me then smiled the same smile at Dan. She turned and unlocked the door. The girls slipped in quietly. Before the door closed, Clara whispered "Goodnight". We walked the few steps to our door. Dan unlocked it and we stepped inside.

"You think we'll see them again?" Dan asked me.

"I don't know. Probably. They are staying in the next room, and we have their numbers. We can call them if we want." Dan nodded at my words.

"They're really nice. I feel like I have known for longer than I have."

"So do I." We changed into our pajamas and crawled into bed. "Goodnight Dan." I said into the dark after I shut the lights off.

"Night Phil." Dan responded. I heard his breathing slow after a while, but I couldn't sleep. My brain kept going back to when I first met Clara.

 _I walked out of the bathroom and started to head back to the meet and greet area. Before I even got to the crowd a girl rushed up to me._

" _Are you Phil?" She asked._

" _Yes I am! Do you want a picture or something?" I asked her. She looked really confused._

" _Uhhhh, no." Her eyebrows crinkled together. "The big fucking giant- wait sorry. Dan was looking for you." She smiled and bit her thumb, then started to walk away._

" _It was nice to meet you!" I called after her. She turned and waved, smiling adorably._

I thought about the stuff I had learned about her and Gemma since then. It's only been a day. What would happen later? With that thought I rolled over and finally shut my eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five**_

Gemma and I had curled up in my bed last night, talking. We discussed Dan and Phil for the most part. The conversation went something like this.

Gemma: "Dan is really really hot. Like Jesus Christ, what I would do to that boy would send me straight to hell. And Phil is pretty cute too."

Me: "Phil is fucking adorable and you know it!"

Gemma: "Shhhh! They share a wall with us. They might be able to hear."

It continued on like that for most of the night, until finally Gemma yawned, rolled off my bed and climbed into hers. We slept like rocks. We only woke up when there was an insistent knocking on the door that would not stop. Gemma sighed but didn't move. That was a bit unusual for her so I rolled out of my bed to get the door. Literally rolled. I opened the door to find Lucy standing there.

"So you actually came home? You should have gone to bed with that guy you went on a date with." She smiled at me and I heard snickering from inside the room. I opened the door wider to allow her to enter. Terra and Jane followed. They all hovered around the table.

"Good morning?" I half said and half asked as I let the door close.

"So you had a date?" Jane asked.

"Who was it with?" Terra added. Gemma was laughing as she pulled herself out of bed and grabbed some clothes from her suitcase. She shuffled off to the bathroom and I had no choice but to answer.

"Just some guys I met. They're my friends. They are also british."

"What are their names?" "Can you set me up?" "Are you seeing them again?" "Are they hot?" There were so many questions that I could no longer who asked what.

"I am not telling you their names, no I am not setting you up, yes I will probably see them again considering they are staying in the hotel. And yes they are hot as hell. Can we move on?" Everyone stopped asking questions for a second. "Why are you all here so early?"

"What are you talking about? It's not early. It's seven. There is a panel and a meet and greet that we need to get to today. They start really soon. You better look nice." Lucy replied, sounding dumbstruck. I just now realized that they were all looking really nice, with their makeup and hair done. I sighed and went to my suitcase. I pulled out a blue dress that Gemma had insisted I pack. I guess I finally had a use for it. Gemma exited the bathroom looking great in a black high waisted skirt and a tight turquoise sweatshirt that ended at the top of her high waisted skirt.

"Why are you dressed so fancy?" I asked her as I headed to the bathroom to get changed.

"There is a fancy youtuber party tonight that I intend to sneak into. You haven't heard about it?" Gemma yelled through the door. I didn't even bother answering. The conversation started up outside. I pulled off my pajamas and put on the dress. It was a light blue dress, tight at the top, flowy at the bottom. It has a v neck kind of top and sleeves that went halfway down my arms. I thought it looked nice. I brushed my hair and left it down grabbing my bag of makeup off the counter. I didn't wear a lot of makeup, but I had a small amount for special occasions.

"Hey! Do you need help with your makeup?" Terra asked me as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom. Jane was already doing something with Gemma's hair and Lucy was working on her makeup.

"Sure. Why not?" I shrugged and Terra pulled me over to the table. I closed my eyes at her request and the time flew by. When she told me to open my eyes again it was 7:47. I glanced in the mirror to find a hazy smokey makeup around my eyes and some light lipstick.

"It's gorgeous, thank you." I smiled at Terra and she smiled back.

"Everyone grab your shoes! We gotta go, go, go!" Lucy yelled at us. I went to my suitcase and grabbed a pair of chevron pumps. The only reason I knew they were called chevron is because Gemma picked them out. They were black and white zigzagged to me. Gemma just insisted I call them chevron. Weirdo.

Gemma grabbed a pair of black pumps and her messenger bag. I handed her my phone and my wallet, and she stuffed them in her bag with hers, because I didn't bring a purse. I am not really a purse person. The other girls grabbed their shoes and bags as well and we all hurried out the door.

I had made it through the panel, which was actually really funny. It was some humour panelly thing, I had honestly no idea. After that there was some meet and greet that the other three girls wanted to do, but since Gemma and I had no idea what, or who it was, we decided to skip it. We went out for a really late lunch at a little cafe about a block away from the hotel.

"Do you think it would be to early to text them?" I asked Gemma about halfway through the meal. She looked up from her salad, but didn't even question who I was talking about.

"I don't know. Probably. They are doing all that vidcon stuff, so they might be busy. Also, it might be a little clingy sounding." Gemma answered, but then added, "I want to talk to them too."

"Maybe they'll be at that party you want to get into."

"That's what I'm hoping." Gemma grinned at me and I grinned back. We didn't talk about them again. We walked around the city for a bit, then walked back to the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly six, and the party started at 6:30. Gemma pulled out her phone and called Terra.

"Terra? Hi! Yeah. We're gonna head there now. No we just got back." Gemma kept talking into the phone as we stood in the lobby. I tuned her out and took off my heels. There was no way I was going to spend the whole night wearing these things. Gemma finally hung up the phone.

"It's on the roof. It's a rooftop party. That is so cool!" Gemma almost squealed. I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, we have to go if we want to get there before a huge crowd." I shook my head at her and walked towards the elevator, my heels swinging in my hand. I heard her clacking steps behind me. We didn't talk much in anticipation. We mainly communicated in a series of foot taps to show how agitated we were. Once we got to the roof, which was a short flight of stairs up from the eleventh floor, we walked with confidence right into the party. I'm not sure if it was supposed to have a bouncer, but I didn't see one. Gemma looked at me, shrugged, and walked to the bar.

"Hi!" She said cheerily to the bartender. The bartender was pretty cute. Blondish hair, green eyes.

"Hi!" He replied cheerfully. "Unfortunately, the bar doesn't open until seven. I'm sorry. But," He smiled at her attractively. "if you need anything else, just let me know." Gemma smiled back at him. I walked closer to the bar then where I had been standing.

"Thank you very much. We'll probably come back to get drunk, for now, we're gonna go." I smiled at him and he winked at me. I grabbed Gemma's arm and dragged her away. The roof was quite a large roof and there was a lot of room to roam. We walked past the door as the bouncer got there. He was tall with dark skin, brown eyes, and a shaved head. I smiled at him as flirtatiously as I could. He smiled a bit and waved. I waved back. Gemma dragged me away. We sat down at one of the tables in the far corner of the roof and waited for the party to start.

From this angle we got a good view of the door, and saw everyone that came in. Mostly anyway. We only paid so much attention and even when we did, when people started showing up in large crowds, we could not see most of them. When it was 7:30 and we decided to make our lives a little more interesting.

"Want to play a game?" Gemma asked.

"Sure, I'm bored. What kind of game is it?"

"Talk to cute guys and get their numbers. The person with the most numbers wins. Doesn't matter what you tell them. You could have a fake identity, you just have to get their number."Gemma gave me a cheeky grin and raised an eyebrow. "No need to have a panic attack, I will be on the roof with you, and you don't have to tell them anything about you." I nodded along. She smiled and I smiled back. I stood up and so did she. "Go." She stated, then turned on her heel and walked away. I shook my head and walked in the opposite direction.

Several minutes later, I had the number of the bouncer, the guy drinking alone at the bar, and a guy called Mike who was sitting on a couch. I was walking away from a guy who had asked me for my number, and who was insanely creepy. I kept walking backwards because he kept talking to me. I finally had to threaten to hit him with one of the heels I was holding. He nodded and walked away. I took one more step backwards and managed to crash into someone. I turned around to apologize and who did I find? Phil, and as usual, beside him was Dan.

"Hang on, I have to be able to actually look you in the eye to apologize." Dan looked really confused. I slipped my heels back on, which added some considerable height to me. "Okay," I smiled at them, because I was almost as tall as they were. "I am very sorry for crashing into you Phil. It seems that I have a bad habit for crashing into you two." Dan started laughing because, I assumed, that he remember how we first met.

"It's good to see you again." Phil smiled at me.

"It's good to see you too."

"How did you get in here?" Dan asked. "Like, not to complain, but isn't this supposed to be a youtuber event?"

"Gemma had a brilliant idea to sneak in here, and the bouncer was flirting with me. It's surprisingly easy to get into places when you pull your shirt down a little." I nodded at their shocked expressions. "How do you think girls get out of trouble so easily? Pull down your shirt half an inch. It works wonders." They were still staring at me, dumbfounded. "Now, who wants a drink?" Before either of them could answer I was already walking toward the bar.


	6. Chapter 6

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Chapter Six/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was hitting up the bartender for his number and a drink when I saw Claire marching over out of the corner of my eye. I swiveled on my stool and waved. She caught sight of me and hurried over. When she reached me, she flopped down on the stool next me./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They're here. I saw them. They might be behind me. This is your warning." She deadpanned everything she said and waited for me to understand. Finally it clicked in that she meant Dan and Phil. She meant the two guys that I had wanted to see more than anything in the whole world since the day I had met them. I glanced up to see them walking in our direction. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Now let's be real here, these guys were hot. They were hot as fuck. They had amazing asses, long legs, nice hair, beautiful eyes. They were hot. But they were also nerds. Huge nerds. They watched manga and played video games. They both had amazing sense of humour. They were both kind, and sweet, and just amazing in general. However, whenever they were around I found my gaze shifting to Dan instead of Phil. Don't get me wrong, Phil was adorable and amazing, but for some reason, I always focused on Dan instead. He was younger than me too. We talked about it over lunch yesterday. Dan was 24, Claire was 25, I was 26, and Phil was 28. I felt kinda bad considering that I had only known him two days, but DAMN SON. All of this ran through my head as they walked over. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey!" Phil said and gave me a hug. Claire looked a little hurt. Phil turned and hugged her too. She smiled over his shoulder. She wasn't smiling at me, but I noticed. I rotated on my stool so I could see Dan./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fancy seeing you here." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What does that phrase even mean?" He asked as he walked to the stool on the opposite side from me. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Not a clue." I started laughing. He laughed with me. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Anyone want some drinks?" The bartender asked. I had already forgotten his name. He had made some pretty fancy drinks before, that I had never seen the like of anywhere else./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Serve me something that I couldn't find anywhere else." I stated. Claire raised her hand and asked for one two. Phil sat down on the opposite side from Claire. Dan and Phil ordered some drink that I had never heard of. To be fair, I don't frequent bars, so I haven't heard of pretty much anything. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You guys know that you don't actually have to stick around with us right?" Claire asked the guys. "You probably have friends you want to talk to. You don't have to stay here." The bartender served our drinks. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're right." Phil said. Everyone looked at him, shocked, even Dan. "We do have other friends. Would you like to come meet them?" Dan looked very relieved. Phil offered his hand to Claire. She took it and jumped off her stool, reaching back for her glass. I threw some cash on the counter, which the bartender quickly scooped up, grabbed my drink and followed. Dan walked right beside me. I noticed that Phil hadn't let go of Claire's hand. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You notice?" Dan leaned close to my ear to whisper, gesturing to the hand holding. I could feel his breath on my neck. I nodded. I leaned closer to him to whisper. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'll bet you five bucks that they don't stop holding hands for longer than five minutes all night." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're on." Dan smiled, actually, full on, teeth baring smile. I grinned back. "You look nice, by the way." He added. I could feel myself blush. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You look good too." He probably always looked good, but what else was I going to say? We followed Claire and Phil until they stopped abruptly and we were forced to walk around them. Phil was talking to someone and introducing Claire, who looked really nervous. She spotted me and looked at me like "DO NOT LEAVE ME PLEASE", but I couldn't oblige. Dan walked away to talk to someone else and I followed. I was gonna get hell for that later. I walked over to stand next to Dan./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Who's this?" The person Dan was talking to asked. I looked at the girl who spoke, who had pink streaks in the bottom of her hair./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""This is Gemma. Gemma, this is Louise." Dan motioned between us. I reached over to shake her hand. We shook, and I took a step back./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So how do you know Dan?" Louise asked. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, we met yesterday." I tried not to look awkward./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Really? Just yesterday? It seems like you two know each other really well." Louise smiled at us. I half frowned and shrugged. I took a huge sip of my drink. It seemed like it was gonna be an interesting night./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At nine ish, someone started playing some music and people started dancing in one portion of the roof. Dan was talking to someone who I didn't know, because I didn't really know anyone, so I headed in the direction of the dance floor. I put my empty glass down on a table along the way. As I started to dance to the song, it changed to some folky music that involved a lot of clapping. I started to join in and somehow, we got the whole dance floor full of people dancing in a circle whilst clapping their hands and laughing. Then people started to dance in and around and it got a little more complicated. Everyone was getting a little confused, but they followed along. The beat kept getting faster and everyone kept moving along to it. Soon I couldn't make out who I was dancing with. We kept twirling and laughing and kicking our feet out. No one was really in time with the music, but it was lots of fun. We kept dancing and turning until the music stopped. Once it did we all stood around gasping for breath and laughing. People had left in the middle of the dance, but they kept streaming back as everyone went back to jumping and bouncing around on the dancefloor. I walked- okay it was more of a strut, I felt pretty accomplished, don't judge me. I strutted away and into the crowd. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey!" Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me over to them. I didn't see who it was until I had stumbled around. It was Claire. "That was brilliant! I got it all on video!" She held out a phone that wasn't hers. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Who's phone is that?" I asked./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's Phil's. You still have the bag, so I had to improvise. I couldn't stop you dancing to get a video of you dancing, now could I?" She motioned to Phil standing a few feet away talking to someone else I didn't know. "He just stepped away a minute ago to go talk to them." She smiled at me. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You video taped me dancing on someone else's phone?" I couldn't believe she had done that./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah! And I already sent it to myself, so I can share it with any dance gurus that want to see and example." She had a huge grin on her face. I couldn't close my mouth. "Don't worry, you looked awesome! You were having so much fun! And, hey, Dan is coming over too!" She smiled at me cheekily./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh shit." I finally closed my mouth. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That was an awesome dance." Someone said from beside me. I took a deep breath and turned to face Dan. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You saw that?" I asked wearily./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah pretty much everyone did. The dance floor is in the middle of the party." I laughed at his words. How did he make me go from awkward to having fun in three seconds? /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Very true." I said through my laughter. He smiled and glanced at Claire, who I assumed was still there./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Is that Phil's phone?" He asked./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh. Yeah! I borrowed it. I should probably go give it back." She turned to go./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait!" Dan and I both called and she turned back around. Dan and I looked at each other, having a silent conversation. It was mainly, 'You ask.' 'No, you ask.'. Finally I looked at Claire./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How long have you been away from Phil?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Umm, not long. Long enough to see you dance, then have this conversation. Maybe five minutes. Probably less." She shrugged. "Why?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No reason. Have you been holding hands that entire time?" Dan asked. Claire went red. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ummmmmm..." Claire trailed off. "It's been like five minutes." She glanced at my feet. "I should give Phil his phone." She turned and almost ran away. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's been five minutes." Dan turned to me./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It hasn't been longer."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's been about ten seconds longer." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fine." I laughed and pulled a five out of my wallet and handed it to him. "Happy hanukkah." I grinned at him. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thank you." He smiled his quirky little half smile at me. I smiled back. He shoved the bill in his pocket. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Be warned, that's Canadian money. It's worth less than yours." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Maybe I'll have to use it in Canada." He smiled at me. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You wanna dance?" I asked while looking down at my feet./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, really?" I grabbed his hands and started to lead him backward. "All you have to do is bounce around a bit." I smiled at his scared face. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't really..." He started to complain, but we had already reached the dance floor. I bounced around a bit and he just kind of rocked back and forth. We danced like that for a while until, I got shoved from behind. I crashed into Dan, who went tumbling backwards. I ended up lying on top of Dan, in the middle of the floor. I started to laugh really hard and jumped up, giving him a hand. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I think that's it for your dancing tonight huh?" I asked. He nodded enthusiastically and followed me into the crowd of other people that weren't dancing. Within seconds, I had lost him in the crowd. Damn. I turned to the bar to get another drink./span/p 


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter Seven**_

I felt like a total fail. I had fallen on the dancefloor with Gemma, and then lost her in the crowd. 'Reasons why Dan's a fail (yay)' sung in my head. I shook my head and wandered through the crowd. I saw Phil with Claire, holding hands again. I walked over and joined the conversation they were having with a few other people. I hung around with them for a while and was able to put Gemma out of my mind for a while.

I looked at my phone. It was almost eleven. I went to find Phil, who had walked away a while ago. A little while before he left, Claire had left. That's probably why he left. Anyway, we had a panel to present in the morning. Not that early in the morning, but early enough that we should probably get back to our room. I checked the couches, the tables, glanced over the dance floor, and finally headed for the bar. Once I got there, I found Claire and Gemma leaning together and talking. Phil was standing a little ways away talking to somebody about them making some videos together. I considered walking over to Gemma, but quickly decided to talk to Phil instead.

"Phil! Sorry to interrupt. We have a panel in the morning. We should probably go."

"Oh right! Talk to you later! Bye!" He called to the person he was talking to and walked with me to the stairway which led to the elevator. We waved at a few people on the way out and discussed a few different collab ideas we could do on the way to our room. By the time we got back to the room it was shortly after 11:30. We flopped on the beds. We chatted for a little while about all kinds of things, like what we were going to have for breakfast and what we might say on the panel tomorrow. We kept talking until about midnight, maybe a little later. Then we heard voices coming from the next room. The room directly above our heads while we were laying on the beds.

We both sat up straight and looked at each other. They were talking quite loudly, and we both knew who they were. We had a silent debate about whether or not we should listen, but we didn't really have much of a choice.

"So how many numbers did you get?" Gemma's voice echoed through the wall. It was crystalline and clear. Beautiful.

"Not nearly as many as you did. How did you even manage to get 16 guys to give you their numbers?" Claire's voice came a little more quietly.

"I had some free time. How many did you even get?"

"Three. But one of them was the cute bouncer, that has to count for two points."

"The bald guy?"

"Yes, he happened to have no hair. He also happened to be hot as hell." Phil and I looked at each other, a little confused as to what was going on.

"Okay, okay. The bouncer dude gets you two points." Gemma laughed. "The 16 numbers I got gave me 16 points. The three you got gave you four points. I feel like we have a clear winner here."

"Okay okay fine you win." Claire sighed. "How did you even come up with this game to begin with? What kind of person thinks 'Let's see how many numbers we can get and see who can get more' is a good kind of game?" Now I understood.

"You're just sad because you lost."

"It's not like I had much of a chance to try."

"Oh right! You and Phil were holding hands the whole time. How was that?" Phil got really red and I tried to hold back laughter.

"It was really..." Claire trailed off for a moment. Phil's eyes widened and he looked towards the wall, suddenly scared. "Okay I have given up on not swearing in this sentence." Claire continued. Gemma laughed. "It was fucking amazing. Like Jesus Christ, my god, bloody hell, fuck." Phil looked relieved.

"I lost a bet for that, so I hope you feel pleased." It was my turn for my face to get red.

"Wait, what?" Claire sounded hurt.

"Yeah. I bet five bucks that you and Phil wouldn't stop holding hands for longer than five minutes. I lost by ten seconds."

"Who the hell took that bet? Jesus Gemma. Do not ever do that again."

"Dan. And you have to admit, I had a good chance of winning." Phil glared at me.

"What?" I whispered. "She bet me, and I didn't think it would harm anything." Phil shook his head. The voices on the other side of the wall quieted.

"How many drinks did you even have?" Claire whispered.

"Like, three." Gemma whispered back.

"Come on, you know Lucy is going to come knocking on our door early in the morning again."

"Excuse me, but I saw you gulping down liquor like it was ambrosia."

"Okay, first of all, ambrosia does not actually exist. Second of all, I can hold my liquor. You however, cannot. You get drunk from three glasses of wine."

"That was one time and I had nothing to eat. If it was wine, it takes five or six glasses."

"And you really felt the need to clarify that."

"Yes!"

"You are not helping your case here."

"Fine fine." Gemma agreed then suddenly made an oof sound. "You did not!" I looked at Phil confused. He shrugged at me. There was a squeal from the other side of the wall. Then there was a heavy thud and a muffled scream. Maniacal laughter came next. I jumped off my bed. Luckily both Phil and I were still dressed. We hadn't gotten changed before we flopped on the bed.

"Are we gonna check?" I asked Phil.

"We can't not. What if something happened?" he answered.

"What would have happened?" I asked back. He shrugged. I was already headed for the door. I walked the short distance to their door. Phil grabbed the keycard on the way out and held it above his head for a moment. I was grateful. I knocked on the door. There was a muffled shriek and then the door swung open.

Claire stood in the doorway in a pair of pajama shorts that just barely covered her ass, and a black tank top. Gemma stood a little ways behind her in a tight nightgown that looked really silky. We stood there for a minute, not saying anything.

"Soooo, hi?" Claire said after another minute.

"Hey." Phil replied. We stood around for another minute. Claire raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, seriously, why are you guys here?" Gemma walked over so she stood beside Claire.

"We heard some screams." I said quietly.

"You were listening to us?" Gemma asked. Claire whispered something in her ear, then walked into the room. Gemma closed the door a bit and stood in the door frame to block our view.

"Well, we were sitting quietly and your voices just kinda came through the wall. We couldn't help it." Phil shrugged. Gemma's face went a little red.

"Well, that was a little impolite, but I could see why that happened." Gemma nodded.

"Why were there screams? Is everything okay?" I asked again, very worried.

"We were having a pillow fight." Gemma's face went a shade more red. "There was a stealth attack dealt to me. I am incredibly insulted that you thought that we couldn't handle ourselves." Gemma frowned, her face getting even more red. I swear something was wrong. "Claire, do you have anything to say to them?" Gemma glanced backwards, still blocking our view of the room.

"Yes, I do, actually." Claire's voice came from closer than I was expecting.

"Okay." Gemma said as she stepped around the door, almost closing it before Claire came back. Claire opened the door and one of her hands stayed on the side inside the room, like she was holding it.

"Hi." Claire smiled prettily, then threw open the door, pulling her hand out from behind it in the process. In her hand was a pillow. She jumped into the hallway and started to smack us with the pillow. Peals of laughter erupted from inside the room. I covered my head as Claire rained down on us with the pillow. Then she jumped back inside the room, laughing. "Take that." She had a huge grin on her face, but started to bite her lip. "Have a great night!" She called. Then Gemma reached out from behind her and started closing the door.

"Sleep tight!" Gemma called before slamming the door. Their laughter came through the door, although slightly muffled.

I looked at Phil. He shrugged. We headed back to our room. He unlocked the door and went inside, I followed. We changed into our pajamas and crawled into bed. There was only another day and a half of vidcon. What would happen next?


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter Eight**_

After the panel at 8:30 in the morning, we hung out with Cat and a couple other youtubers for the rest of the day. We wandered around San Francisco a bit, stopped for lunch, and even saw the golden gate bridge. It was a pretty good day. I even had american pancakes for breakfast.

However, the days of vidcon were slipping by faster than I felt they should. Dan and I kept doing things. We were always busy. We filmed collabs, had meet and greets, panels, talked to friends that we didn't get to see a lot. I hadn't found a lot of time to do much else. It was fun, but I knew that it was going to end soon. Before I knew it, it was the last day we were in San Francisco. Dan and I were packing for the trip back to London. We talked as we packed.

"Are you looking forward to getting home?" Dan asked me.

"Yes! I want sleep in my own bed." Dan nodded with me. "Are you sad to leave?"

"Yeah. It's fun to be here." Dan nodded. "Are you gonna miss anybody?" I was lost in thought for a bit. I couldn't get Clara out of my mind. Her jutting out her hip last night in her pajamas. Her laughing in that blue dress. Her taking a huge gulp of her water, then almost spitting it across the table when she was laughing at something I said. Her asking to borrow my phone. Her smiling at me. Her biting her thumb. Clara, Clara, Clara.

"Definitely." I finally answered. Dan nodded. He seemed deep in thought as well. We finished packing in silence. We had to leave at four in the afternoon. It was only about one when we finished packing. We had about two hours to kill before we had to be at the airport. I was just about to ask what we were going to do when there was a knock on the door. Dan and I looked at each other, then I went to get the door.

I pulled the door open to find Clara and Gemma talking quietly. When Clara realized that the door was open, she shoved Gemma forward. Gemma stood awkwardly for a second, then leaned against the door frame.

"You didn't give us skype information. Just your phone numbers." She smiled, or halfway smiled. It wasn't quite a full smile.

"Okay..." I trailed off thinking for a sec. "Dan!" I called and turned around so I could face him.

"Yeah?" He called back.

"What's our skype info? I can't remember."

"Hang on, I'll look it up." Dan pulled out his laptop and sat down at the table. I turned back to Gemma and Clara.

"You want to come inside?" I asked. Gemma glanced at Clara, who was biting her thumb, then she nodded. I smiled at them and held the door.

"Thanks." They both mumbled, then walked to where Dan was sitting. Gemma slid over the floor gracefully, while Clara kind of shuffled along the carpet. When Clara got to where Gemma stopped, she held out her finger and shocked her. Gemma jumped. That's why she was shuffling along. I let the door close and followed them. Gemma glared at Clara, who was smiling, then handed Dan a sheet of paper.

"That's our skype info. We thought you might want it." Gemma stated politely. Clara randomly started dancing. She was just moving her head and hands and swaying but she was definitely dancing.

"Sing what's in your head right now." Gemma said.

" _All you sinners stand up sing hallelujah..."_ Clara sang. Bouncing around to it.

"Ugh." Gemma sighed. "I should have never introduced you to Panic! At The Disco yesterday."

"No you shouldn't have." Clara shook her head. She stopped dancing suddenly. "When are you guys leaving for London?"

"Four." Dan answered, writing some stuff down on a piece of hotel notepaper, which I assumed was our skype info. He handed the paper to Gemma. She put it into the pocket of her jeans. Dan clicked on something else and started to scroll. I assumed it was tumblr but I couldn't see from this angle.

"Oh. That's sad. We're leaving two hours after you are." I moved to sit at the table while Clara was talking.

"Wat." Dan deadpanned.

"What is it?" Gemma asked. I ran around the table to see what was going on. I was right, Dan was on tumblr. And on the screen were two pictures. On was of Dan dancing with Gemma, the other was of me holding hands with Clara. The caption said "The next Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Lester. Who are these lucky freaks?" Everyone crowded around Dan to see what was happening. Someone else commented "I SHIP IT".

"Okay, I am a freak. I get that." Clara said absently. Gemma nodded with her. "What's the big deal?" She sounded so confused.

"Well, people come up with this idea where they picture us together. They assume we are dating, and whenever they see us with someone else, they assume that the new people are ruining this 'perfect relationship' that doesn't really exist." I explained.

"That relationship does not exist, I assure you." Dan frowned at the screen. Gemma's eyebrows scrunched together and Clara bit her thumb.

"Okayyyyyyy..." Gemma still looked a little confused. "I don't really care... at this exact point... so I'm gonna drop the whole subject." She sat down on the edge of Dan's bed, the one that was closest to the window. Claire sat down cautiously beside her.

"So what have you two been doing over the last couple of days?" I asked.

"We went sight seeing. We swam. We saw some panels with our friends." Gemma listed off. She swung her legs off the end of the bed. "What did you guys do?"

"We were on a couple of panels." Dan said.

"We went sight seeing." I added.

"We hung out with other youtubers." Dan thought for a moment, then added. "That's about it."

"Sounds like you had fun." Clara smiled at us. Everyone sat in silence for a moment.

"Well, thanks for the skype stuff. We'll call you." Gemma smiled as she stood up. "Have a fun trip."

"And a nice time in London!" Clara added as she jumped up and hurried after Gemma, who was headed toward the door. Halfway across the room, Clara stopped, ran back and gave me huge hug. She held on for a couple seconds, then let go, waved at Dan, and hurried back across the room after Gemma. Gemma waved, and the let the door close behind them.

Dan and I checked out of the hotel a little while later. We were heading towards the door when two girls ran in front of us. I was about to ask if they wanted a photo, but then I recognized them.

"Hey!" Clara almost shouted. She was bouncing up and down like an excited kangaroo.

"Hey!" Dan called back, looking a little confused.

"So, we know you are leaving, and that you have to be at the airport really soon, but we wanted to get you each a present. Kind of like a 'We just met you, but we want you to be our friends, so we kind of want to bribe you' present." Gemma smiled. "So we wanted to give them to you before you left. Open them whenever." She gestured toward Clara, who had her hands behind her back. Clara pulled her hands around in front of her. In one hand was a blue box, with silver string tied around it. In the other was a package (roughly square) that was wrapped in black wrapping paper with stars on it. It had a white stick on bow.

"The blue on is for Dan." Clara smiled at our shocked faces. "Just kidding! I tried to stick with your monochrome thing when I wrapped your present." She laughed and held out the black package to Dan. He took it and smiled. She handed the blue box to me. I couldn't help but grin. Before we could say anything else Gemma hugged us, quickly followed by Clara.

"Have an amazing trip." Clara said as she scurried to elevator. Gemma followed in her wake. Dan and I watched them walk away, then hurried to get in the taxi we had called. We put our luggage in the trunk and then clambered into the cab.

"What do you think they are?" Dan asked, shaking his present.

"I don't know. Should we open them?"

"Maybe once we get to the airport?" Dan sounded like he was asking my permission. I nodded in agreement. So we waited until we got there. Once we did, we sat on a couple of benches outside the security to open them.

"Do you want to open yours first?" I asked Dan.

"Sure." He shrugged and started to pull at the packaging. Inside it was a box with rounded corners. It was white and had no markings on it. He tugged at the top, where the box should open. He started to pull a couple of things out of it. First came a folded paper mask of the alien emoji. Then there was t shirt that, when Dan unrolled it read, "MoNoCHRoME" in weird zigzag letters. The 'O's were all coloured, while everything else was in shades of black, and the t shirt was white. Then came a plaque that said "Dan's Dancing Career, Summer of 2016, 20 Minutes" which made us both laugh. The bottom had a another t shirt proclaiming, "We knew you were going to the airport and we didn't know what to get you, so we got you this". The back said "Happy Hanukkah". It was definitely made by Gemma. That was the last thing in the box. Dan started putting the gifts in his luggage. He was still laughing lightly. He turned to me when he was done.

I pulled the string away from the blue box, and gently tugged the lid off. Everything inside was neatly folded and placed. I wonder who packed this one? From left to right, everything was a different colour. Six different things. A beautiful rainbow. I pulled out the red first. It was a neatly folded smaller version of the canadian flag. The orange thing was a t shirt with a sunset on it. The yellow thing was a slim yellow box, which held two flower crowns made of daisies. The green thing was a framed photo (the frame was green) of me and Dan. The blue was a box that looked exactly like the yellow one, except, blue. There was a piece of paper inside that read "We tried to have a rainbow, but we didn't want to give you more than Dan. Enjoy the box!" The purple was a painting done of Dan and I, with a purple backdrop. A note on the side of it read "For Dan as well". The box itself wasn't very big, and neither was anything in it, but I would enjoy having the small frames hung on my wall. It was a wonderful gift. I put everything away in my luggage and Dan and I went through security.

"Those were some awesome presents." Dan said after we got out of security. "Why do you think they got us gifts?" I thought about it for a minute.

"Probably exactly what they told us. They really want to be our friends." I smiled at Dan and he smiled back.

"They already are." Dan added quietly.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter Nine**_

When we got home it felt like heaven. I breathed in the smell of home and I could have collapsed with happiness. You know how you never recognize the smell your home has until you are gone for so long that you can't remember it? And then once you get home, you can recognize everything that you smell, because you missed the smell of home? That was what was happening now. I could smell the laundry detergent, the perfume that Gemma always sprayed, although the smell of that was fading now. I could smell the slight lemon smell of the cleaner we use, and the berry air freshener I put in the living room to mask the smell of sweat. I could smell the dust that lightly covered everything. I could smell home, and it was glorious.

I walked into our little apartment, Gemma closing the door behind us. The little kitchen was to the left, which shared the room with the living space. The living space consisted of an old faded brown couch, two large colourful chairs that were the epitome of comfiness (one yellow and one blue), a wood coffee table, and a large tv with assorted electronic devices to go with it. The living space was in front of me and slightly to the right, because behind the living space was the 'dance studio'. It wasn't really a dance studio, it was just a large empty space with a shelf for the speaker and music system that Gemma had set up. Right past the kitchen and before the dance studio was a hallway, which led to the bedrooms and stuff. The first door on the left the tiny bathroom. The first door on the right was my room, and the second door on the left was Gemma's room. There were also a couple of little closets down there too. It was a nice little house. Gemma and I split up and went to our separate rooms to unpack. As soon as I was done, I fell down on my bed and promptly fell asleep.

When I woke up it felt like I had slept for days. It was dark outside, and my stomach was growling like an angry bear. I rolled out of bed, still in my travel clothes and went to the kitchen, where Gemma was already cooking.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked her.

"I don't know. I woke up like an hour ago, maybe less. It is almost midnight, and I am _starving_." Gemma put a lot of pressure on the last word. "So I made pasta, with tomato sauce, because that is pretty much all we had in the cupboards. I dished you out a bowl too." She pushed a bowl across the island countertop to me.

"Thanks!" I took it and went to sit in the living room. She followed. We ate in comfortable silence. After we were done, I washed the dishes while Gemma took a shower. After she was done in there, I took a shower. After that was done, we started to do the laundry (we had a laundry machine in a closet at the end of the hallway) and cleaned up the house.

"When are is the first day we go back to work?" I asked Gemma. Lucy had told her all the information, not me.

"I go back tomorrow. You go back the day after that." Gemma nodded at me as she switched the loads of laundry.

"Back to normal life?" I asked, taking the basket of clean clothes.

"Back to normal life." She confirmed.

A week past and we were getting back into the swing of things. I worked, but I didn't sign up for anymore courses. The letters from all the schools I had applied to in the UK were supposed to come in about another week or two. Gemma taught her dance class, but every other free moment she had was dedicated to practicing her dance routine for her London School of Dance tryouts. Which were in about a week as well. Some people from the school were coming to Toronto to scout some people and the were going to audition then. She was totally freaking out and I could barely convince her to take breaks from her practice to eat.

One day, I came home from the library and Gemma was dancing, like usual. I put my bag down and flopped on the couch. I turned on the XBox. There was a skype request flashing in the corner. I frowned. No one skypes us. Not really anyway. We will get an occasional skype from Lucy or Jane or Terra, but that's it. I clicked it to see who it was from. The notification read "Skype Request From danisnotonfire". I flipped out. I literally jumped over the couch and ran into Gemma. Like straight into Gemma. I reached behind her and stopped her music.

"What is it? What do you want?" She sounded upset.

"Dan called us. Or skyped us. Whatever you call it. And yes," I added, just to make sure she understood "I do mean Dan from vidcon Dan." She screamed. Literally screamed. She jumped over the couch, just like I had done a few seconds earlier.

"Can I answer? Are you ready?" She asked me. I looked at my clothes. I was just in some jeans and a star wars t shirt. My hair was down. I thought I looked okay. I nodded. She looked down at her clothes. She was in booty shorts and a tank top. Her hair was in a pony tail. "Let's do this." She hit accept. It loaded and I leaned on the back of the couch. The screen popped up and suddenly Dan was taking up our television.

"Hey!" He said. "I wasn't expecting you to answer. It's getting late." He smiled his quirky little smile. I could feel my eyebrows scrunch together.

"It's four in the afternoon here."

"Oh." Dan frowned. "I forgot that we are a little bit ahead of you."

"Like five hours ahead." Gemma smiled at him. Dan smiled back at us.

"I called to say thank you for the presents. We loved them." He was now grinning. "You know you didn't have to do that." He was still grinning.

"We know we didn't have to, we wanted to. Right Claire?" Gemma glanced back at me.

"Yes!" I glanced back at Gemma and then grinned at Dan. We sat for a moment. Or they sat and I leaned. "Well... Welcome to our home!" I started laughing as I talked, giving him a fake tour. Gemma was laughing as well.

"Right now you are seeing the living room, with our historically old brown couch. Behind that you see the 'Dance Studio'" I made sure to use air quotes. "It's essentially an open space. The kitchen is to your left, feel free to help yourself, even though you won't be eating much from there. The bathroom is down that hallway," I pointed behind myself. "It's the first door on the left, not that you will see much of it. Everything else really isn't important at this point. The tour is finished." I bowed as they laughed.

"How has your week been?" Gemma asked.

"Pretty good. We slept a lot. We filmed some new videos." Dan nodded. "How was your week?"

"It was pretty good. Gemma has been dancing pretty much non-stop, and I have been stressing about applications, so neither of us have been eating much, but hey, we're here!" I smiled at Dan. He looked a little worried, but smiled back. Before anyone else could say anything, a muffled voice came from Dan's end of the video.

"Dan? Who are you talking to? Are you talking to yourself again?" The voice crackled. It was a ways away.

"It's Gemma and Claire. They answered the skype call." Dan answered.

"Can I say hi?" The voice came closer and it was unmistakably Phil's. I hopped over the couch and sat down next to Gemma.

"That was eager." Gemma whispered. Dan hadn't seen my jump, because he was looking at Phil. The screen they were on was obviously a laptop, so we could only see Dan. Dan shifted the laptop from wherever it had been sitting before, so it now included Phil in the screen I waved.

"Hey!" Phil sounded very excited. "Thank you for the presents! We loved them!" he was grinning.

"It was our pleasure. We love getting people presents." I glanced at Gemma. She agreed.

"So did you decide which story to send in to the universities?" Phil asked suddenly.

"Uhhh... What?" I asked.

"You said that you had to pick a story to send to shorten and send to the universities in the UK." Phil clarified.

"You seriously remembered that?" I asked. Phil nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I did. I sent it in a while ago. I get the response in about a week." I smiled at him, because he remembered that so randomly.

"That's great! I hope you get in." He smiled back at me.

"Thanks! Sorry for keeping you two up so late."

"No, no. I have to finish editing a video and Dan is probably gonna stay up til four a.m. on tumblr." Phil nodded.

"Oh, okay."

"I haven't watched any of your videos. And we all know that Claire hasn't even gone on youtube, so..." Gemma trailed off for a moment. "Maybe we should watch those." She turned to face me instead of the screen. "What do you think?"

"Movie marathon style? Beginning to end? Lots of food?" I clarified, even though I knew what would happen. Gemma nodded.

"No music. We'll do Phil first, because I assume he was on youtube longer. Then Dan. We are going to need supplies." She nodded very seriously.

"Store first. Food and drinks. We will need to pull some blankets from the cupboard. Build our nest." I was getting very into this idea.

"Of course. You get the blankets and start building the nest. I'll go out for food." Gemma jumped off the couch and grabbed her bag and her shoes.

"Get something for dinner too!" I called after her.

"Got it!" She yelled back. Then the doors closed. I jumped up to get blankets, but then realized that the tv was still on.

"Ahh fuck." I wiped my hand on my face. The guys were staring at me like I was crazy. To be they had probably been staring at Gemma like that when she was here too.

"Ummmm..." Dan trailed off, then looked at Phil.

"Okay, I guess I should explain." I stopped to think and licked my lips. "You know what? No time. I will explain while I build." I ran off down the hall to grab some blankets and pillows and stuff. I came running back and started to explain. "So, Gemma and I started to do these movie marathons when we were really sick, so that we had stuff to do, and company." I said as I pulled the hidabed out from the couch. It already had sheets on. We were prepared. I started constructing an amazing nest if I do say so myself. "We build a nest, like I am doing now, get all the food and drinks so that they are in a close proximity to us, and then settle down so we don't have to move much. But then Gemma had her first big breakup and she needed some cheering up, so we did this. Then when I got pneumonia, we did it again. Then when Gemma got into her dancing school, we did this to celebrate, and she got to pick what we watched. For my birthday we did that again, except I got to choose what we watched. Soon it was more of a happy thing than a bad thing. Now, whenever we have a free weekend and can agree on something to watch, we do this. We don't even have a name for it really. We just call it movie marathon, because what else do you call it? I even got Gemma to watch some Death Note on my last birthday." I smiled when finished with the nest, which looked really fucking amazing. I crawled off the bed that I had just pulled out from the couch, and turned to face the tv. I watched as the guys averted their eyes back to my face. I raised my eyebrows. "Really?" I asked. They both turned red.


End file.
